In The Dark
by tassy0928
Summary: ABANDONED! The Imprint Bond isn't a one-way street, and shapeshifters and vampires aren't the only supernatural creatures in the world. Someone takes advantage of the pack when Paul and Leah purposefully leave their Imprints in the dark about their world. The pack learns the hard way that ignorance isn't always bliss, and that their Imprints were given to them with a purpose.
1. Return to Hometown

**DISCLAIMER:** this is an AU fanfiction based on the Twilight novels, written for entertainment purposes only. **Please note that this story has been edited since publication.**

 **WARNING:** this story contains graphic language and situations. Rated M.

* * *

 **NOVEMBER 2016**

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking up from my phone. I was attempting to finish off the business for the house, but Elliot's heavy breathing was distracting me. It was actually getting on my nerves. He was in the driver's seat of the BMW, hands gripping the wheel tightly, and I rolled my eyes, "Do you want me to drive?"

"I think I'm going to puke. How are you not going to puke?" he asked, glancing over at me. Elliot, though large and covered in tattoos, was very much the more emotional one of us. He just felt more than I did, and more easily, too.

I looked back down at the screen in my hands, finishing off the thank you e-mail to our realtor, "I'm nervous, too, El. I'm just also so exhausted. It's almost over- just keep reminding yourself of that."

He was quiet for a moment before asking, "Do you think it will be the same?"

It was my turn to take a moment before replying. I didn't think it would be the same. How could it? It had been three years, and despite our good intentions, I had no doubt our actions had caused a ton of hurt. We had been hurt, too. It was hard to move past that, and Leah and Paul weren't exactly the forgiving types. Putting my phone in my bag, I said, "We did the right thing. Given the circumstances, they didn't give us much of a choice, you know?"

"Yeah," Elliot said, but it felt empty.

The car slowed to a stop in front of a quaint cottage-style house; our home for the indefinite future. I smiled slightly as I saw it- it had always been my dream home. It was right on the water and secluded, and when I had seen that it was on the market, I couldn't resist. There used to be a time when I had pictured Paul and I living here, raising a family here. My heart ached at that lost dream, but I pushed the feeling aside.

Elliot grabbed both of our bags from the trunk and followed me inside. The furniture had already been delivered and set up. It looked like a home straight out of a Martha Stewart catalog; perfect and impersonal. We had spent three years on the road, moving from the place to place, so the only personal items we had were stuffed into the duffle bags Elliot was carrying. He paused at the foot of the stairs, "Wanna share a room?"

"Of course," I nodded, "Let's get changed and go for a swim."

Sharing a room with Elliot, even though we finally had the chance to have our own space, was more out of safety and an irrational fear of being alone than anything else. The only reason we had made it through the last three years was because we had spent the entire time up each other's asses. We had literally almost never been apart. It had been awkward at first, and we annoyed each other constantly, but being annoyed was better than being dead. Even though we were home now, well, that didn't mean we were safe. In fact, we were probably facing the most danger now that we were back in Forks.

* * *

 **AUGUST 2010**

"Do something!" Jenny whisper-yelled, her face pale with worry, "He's _your_ boyfriend!"

I bit into my bottom lip harder, tasting blood. Jay might have been my boyfriend, but even I had a low success rate when it came to getting him to do anything other than what he wanted to. He was a genuine asshole, and I was pretty sure he was fucking psychotic. We'd been dating for almost two years, and I honestly think I was just too afraid to break up with him at this point. I glanced over at our group of friends, who were all tense with fear, before my gaze swung back over to Jay.

We were up at the cliffs, a stone's throw away from the Reservation, and Jay had thought it would be funny to pretend to push one of our other friends, James, off the edge. At first it had been. We had all laughed, even James. But then Jay hadn't let up. He kept pushing, stepping closer, using his body to back James up against the edge of the cliff.

"You're such a little bitch," Jay taunted, pushing on James' chest, "What, you think you're gonna melt if you go in?"

"Come on, Jay," I took a step forward. I kept my tone light, trying not to make it sound like a demand. I reached out, touching his hand, "This is boring. Let's go-"

Abruptly, he turned, lashing out so that his free hand was latched tightly around my wrist. It gave James a chance to get away, side-stepping Jay quickly. There was a brief pause in Jay's movements- a moment in which I thought he was going to give the joke up- before he gave twisted grin. I tried to jerk my arm away from him, but it didn't work, and he swung my entire body around as I screamed. My feet were still touching the ground, but most of my body weight was now hanging over the edge.

In that moment Jay held every ounce of power, and everyone knew it.

"This isn't funny, Jay!"

"You know she can't swim!"

"Come on, Jay, stop it! Pull her back. You're freaking everyone out!"

He ignored them, instead opting to look me dead in the eye and ask, "Are you still bored, Liv?"

Our friends were still pleading with him, and I distinctly heard James tell someone to call the cops. Their voices were getting more and more agitated. Still, Jay ignored them. I wondered for a moment why my heart wasn't racing, why I wasn't scared. The only thing I felt in that moment was anger. I was tired of being my boyfriend's doormat. I replied, "If I'm a bird, you're a bird."

It was a quote from the Notebook. Jay secretly loved the movie, something only I knew. Usually, I'd say it to him to get him to calm down, to let him know I was on his side, that I trusted him and whatever crazy shenanigan he was getting us into. It usually got him to slow the car down. This time, though, I didn't mean it that way.

"You said it wrong," he snapped, loosening his grip on my wrist.

I shook my head, "No. I didn't." Reaching out, I snatched the front of his shirt with my freehand, balling my fingers in the fabric. I vaguely registered movement out of the corner of my eye; newcomers. I went on, "If I go over, so do _you_. If I'm a bird, you're a fucking bird, Jay."

I thought I heard Claire say my name. Her sudden reappearance caught my eye, and I glanced over to see her hand pressed against her mouth tightly in horror. When she had left James had been in my place. My best friend wasn't alone, though, now being flanked on either side by two massive men. One was Quil, her shadow. I knew why she had opted to get them instead of calling the police; she believed Quil could do anything, even save me from my now seemingly homicidal boyfriend.

I wondered, briefly, how they had gotten there so quickly.

On her other side, though, was a man I was sure I had never actually met, but had seen once before. He was taller than Quil, bigger than him. He looked so angry, he had the first time I had seen him too, but the look didn't bother me. In fact, even though I didn't know him, looking at him flooded me with an overwhelming sense of familiarity just like it had the first time I had seen him. Looking at him made me feel like I was staring at my home.

" _Paul,_ " I heard Claire said pointedly, "She can't swim."

Jay let go.

Our friends called out, various forms of 'no!' and 'oh my god!' and my name. The thing was, I hadn't been bluffing when I had told Jay I'd take him with me. He obviously thought I had been, because when I didn't let go, when the weight of me started to bring him over the edge too, his eyes grew wide and he started to let out a scream. Almost as soon as we started to fall, however, we stopped. Quil had come up behind Jay, yanking him backward. Paul was there, grabbing me, pulling me up and away from Jay.

Suddenly my feet were back on solid ground and my face was in warm his hands. He stared at me for a few seconds, whispering, "Shit." Jay was freaking out, squirming under Quil, yelling something. Paul looked over his shoulder, his face clouding. He looked back at me, "Don't move. Okay? Please don't move from this spot." He waited for me to nod before he walked over to Jay.

"Paul saying please?" Claire asked, her tone teasing. As she turned me away from the group I watched Quil gather the other kids and start to lead them down the hill. I wondered why we were all so quick to follow their lead. Claire examined my bruised wrist, making sure it wasn't broken. She smiled knowingly as she caught my eye, "Must be love." 

* * *

**2013**

[voicemail]

 _"I know that you're mad, Olivia. I get it. I can explain. Please call me back. I love you."_

" _Baby, come on. I know this sounds fucking stupid, but it really wasn't what you thought. I've sent you like a thousand texts- just reply once. Proof of life. This isn't funny."_

" _Liv? It's Claire. You aren't home and you aren't at work. Please call me, we're worried."_

" _Liv, where are you? Come on, my sister would never do something like that to you and you KNOW Paul wouldn't either. Could the both of you just come home and let us explain?"_

" _It's Claire… again. It's been weeks. Where are you? I can't believe you and Elliot just vanished together. We're all so worried. Please,_ please _, call someone back."_

" _Hey… it's Leah… Elliot isn't responding to me and I know you both… you're both really scaring us. Just… we're so sorry- we can explain. Text, call- fuck, come home."_

" _...I'm going to keep paying your phone bill, Liv, just in case. I love you."_

 _"I'm sorry, Liv. Please come home…..please."_

 _"Olivia, everyone is so worried. It's been almost nine months and your parents just up and left Forks- not that they gave anyone much of an explanation other than 'they're ok'. And Paul… he's not coping. He isn't sleeping, he's barely eating. He's so angry all the time. He's wrecked. I know you've got to be hurting too. Call someone….it's Claire, just in case you forgot the sound of your best friend's voice."_

" _...I'm broken, Livy. Without you… I just... "_

* * *

 **November 2016**

"Oh my God," I breathed, breaking the surface of the icy water. It was mid-November; not ideal temperatures for a swim. What was worse than the water, though, was being wet and out of it. Elliot was standing on the shore, waiting for me with a towel, a concerned look on his face. I didn't blame him- for a moment I had been worried too. The entire reason I had been the one to retrieve the bag was because I was small enough to fit in the cavern it was housed in. Turns out I wasn't. The rocks had shifted in the three years we had been gone.

"Shit, I thought you'd drowned," Elliot said, rushing to meet me. I dropped the small bag and let Elliot help me out of the wetsuit, trying to keep myself moving. My limbs were numb. He wrapped a towel around me, reaching up to take the cap off my head, "Hey, I bet you're not hating on this now that your hair is mostly dry!" I knew he was teasing, but I was so cold all I could do was smile.

We were quiet for a few moments, Elliot holding the towel up, me shuffling between him and it trying to get dressed as quickly as possible. He brought the towel down, starting to fold it, while I stood there shirtless, "Did you lose my shirt?"

"What? No way," he frowned, pausing to look for it. He sighed, "Here, take my flannel." I had a jacket to put on too, but I was so cold in that moment I wasn't going to turn down another layer.

"Olivia? Elliot?" a timid voice caught our attention- and caught us without our tops on. Both Elliot and I jerked our heads to the left, and my breath caught as I laid my eyes on a shocked Claire. It wasn't two seconds after that Quil broke the treeline behind her. He went to say something but stopped short when he saw us.

"Fuck," I whispered, too dumbstruck to say anything else.

Quil spoke as Elliot moved to put his shirt around my shoulders, and I attempted to button it up with my numb fingers, "We were just on our way to say hello to our new neighbors. We saw the moving trucks."

" _Fuck_ ," I repeated.

"That's all you have to say?" Claire snapped, and Quil said her name in an attempt to get her to calm down. She waved him off, "You're standing here half naked after three years, doing God only knows what outside, and that's all you have to say?"

"We didn't know you were our neighbors," Elliot offered, kicking my socks and shoes over to me as he pulled on his hoodie. He leaned down to finish packing his bag, "Not that being our neighbor gives you the right to be on our property- which, it being _our_ property and us being consenting adults _not_ in relationships with anyone else- enables us to do whatever it is we please on it. Naked or otherwise." It was my turn to say his name, to try and reign my partner in. He ignored me, instead opting to help me into my jacket as he went on, "No, I'm actually glad we ran into you two. Maybe you can relay a message for us." He was looking past Claire now, right at Quil. I said his name again as he zipped my jacket up, "We moved back to Forks to take care of a few family obligations.

"We know it's a small town. We know we're bound to run into you. We don't plan on being rude to you. Just know that we have no interest in picking up where we left off. We have no interest in putting water under the bridge; there is no bridge, you all burned that fucker down three years ago and there is nothing left of it. We aren't interested in your secrets and your lies and your half-truths. We aren't interested in your explanations. That's not what we're here for. None of you are welcome here- I'm sure you saw the 'no trespassing' signs on your way in. Adhere to them next time."

"That's a little dramatic," Claire said, her cheeks tinting red. Quil was trying to pull her back, "Getting super worked up over a situation you don't even understand. Over supposed cheating three years ago."

Elliot laughed, "Yeah, and you're more than a little naive if you think I was referring to the 'supposed' cheating."

Quil frowned, zeroing in on Elliot, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't matter what it means. It's not your business. Get off our property and don't come back," I answered. I added, "If we see any of you on our land again we'll have you arrested."

I had never seen Claire look so betrayed, but that last sentence brought it out. I didn't blame her. It was a harsh thing to say- even more harsh of a thing to actually do. We just couldn't afford to have any of them snooping around or trying to weasel their way back into our lives right now. I wasn't sure either of us was strong enough to resist letting them back in if we were caught alone. It was better to put the barrier up now than try to do it later. Besides, if they found out what we had been doing, what we were planning to do, they would most certainly try to interfere. They would ruin everything, and the last awful three years would be for nothing.

We'd all be dead.

Both Elliot and I waited for them to turn around, to make it back into the treeline, before we turned back towards the house. We didn't speak much when we got there, instead opting to lay on the living room floor, passing a bottle of whiskey back and forth, wallowing in our collective self-pity. The little black bag we'd gone fishing for earlier sat on the kitchen counter, untouched.

It could wait until tomorrow.

"We're doing the right thing," I offered after awhile.

I felt Elliot nod beside me, "Yeah." He was quiet for a moment before going on, "If they would have told us about the shapeshifting. If they would have told us about the imprinting. Hell, if they would have just told us about _any_ of it, we wouldn't be in this fucking mess. We wouldn't have had to leave. We wouldn't have been fighting for our lives, for _their_ lives, for the last three years. We wouldn't have had to…if they would have just fucking trusted us."

"They thought they were protecting us by keeping us in the dark. They didn't know that made us weaker. But you can't throw it in their face, El. You can't pretend that we're keeping them in the dark for the same reason. We just have to figure out who the asshole who is going to betray them is," I rolled over, resting my head on his chest, taking his hand in mine, "Then we can tell the truth."

"Then we can tell the truth," he agreed.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Please leave a review letting me know what you thought! XOXO


	2. Cheater, Cheater?

DISCLAIMER: this is an AU fanfiction based on the Twilight novels, written for entertainment purposes only. Please note that this story has been edited since publication.

WARNING: this story contains graphic language and situations. Rated M.

* * *

NOVEMBER 2016

I was really, really hungover.

At twenty-five, you'd think I would have been over the get-so-drunk-you-can't-function-the-next-day thing, but apparently, I wasn't. Elliot, a half-decade older than me, obviously wasn't either. We had both woke with a severe case of cotton mouth, sweaty, with raging headaches. I held my head in my hands and silently begged for the pills to kick in, only looking up when Elliot sat down across from me at the table. We were sitting in a small cafe, a new addition since we'd been gone, waiting on our breakfasts.

We were both too hungover to cook.

"I just vomited," Elliot told me, holding up his mug. I lifted mine and clinked them together, "Thought you should know. I'm officially a lightweight."

I nodded my head, "Mmm, new plan: we don't drink our sorrows."

"Newer plan: we don't drink again ever," he added, taking a big gulp. I added an ice cube to mine, sipping on it. He looked up at me, "Hey, you'd marry me, right?" He went on at my raised brows, "You know, if our grand plan doesn't work out. We're basically married now. I've had to examine you for ticks and you've had to put Gold Bond between my ass cheeks. I'd call us married without the rings at this point. Domestic Partners at least."

I burst out laughing, covering my mouth to muffle the sound, "Wow. Way to paint such a wonderful picture of marriage. Totally looking forward to it." Elliot was grinning, staring at me, "But yeah, I'll totally be your Gold-Bond-to-ass partner for life."

"Good," he winked.

Our food was brought out to us and we began to eat, keeping quiet until the end of the meal. I pushed my plate away afterward, "So, speaking of you puking. How about that word vomit last night?"

He grimaced, "Yeah. I one hundred percent never imagined myself saying anything like that to any of them. That's more your thing. But I just lost my shit- especially when she implied we were awful for doing 'God only knows what' when we literally walked in on Leah and Paul buck ass naked and on top of each other. Like, in any normal circumstances, how would that be explained away? Seriously. Please, Liv, tell me."

"Because 'hey, we're shapeshifters, and when we shift back we're obviously nude, and Leah was having an outburst and I was totally just holding her down until she got over it and didn't expose us or hurt someone' was definitely an explanation we would have believed if we hadn't already known otherwise," I said dryly.

Elliot rolled his eyes in response, "But we did know."

"But they don't know that we knew. Or that we know. Which is the point," I corrected.

He shook his head, "Mmm, no, I think the entire point of this little three-year adventure is that if Leah and Paul would have trusted us like every other Shifter had trusted their Imprints, then none of this fucking shit would have ever happened. No one would be miserable. I wouldn't get stress rashes on my ass that you have to medicate. You wouldn't have night terrors."

"I don't have night terrors," I snapped.

"Uh huh," he countered, reaching into his wallet. He placed cash on the table as we stood up, "But then again, we wouldn't have all of this cash to burn. So we can thank them for that."

"Actually, we can thank Alice for that," I said, checking my phone for the time, "The Cullens should be arriving at their place soon. We wouldn't want to be late."

* * *

JANUARY 2013

"Hey," I smiled, then immediately frowned when I saw Paul's face as he entered the car, "Seriously?"

"I'm sorry, babe, I've got to go," he leaned over and planted a kiss on my mouth, frowning when I didn't return it.

My brows rose, "You've got to go? We're an hour away from home, you have to take me home, Paul. This is getting ridiculous. Where are you going?"

He brushed off most of what I said, "No, remember Leah and Elliot are here too? Elliot is going to take you home after the movie." He started the car and put it in drive, carefully maneuvering it over towards where Elliot's car was parked. He started to help me gather my things, "Come on, Liv, you know I wouldn't be doing this unless it was important. You trust me, right?"

"It's getting really hard to trust you when you keep vanishing and you won't even tell me what's going on or where you're going," I snapped, snatching my things out of his hand. I didn't bother to tack on that him randomly vanishing with Leah in the middle of the night wasn't helping. Out of spite, I got out of the car without saying bye, which I knew pissed Paul off. Although I wanted to ignore Leah and slam the car door, I didn't. Instead, I left it open and gave her as casual of a smile as I could muster at that moment.

Elliot and I had never been alone together. We'd been around each other, sure, but I don't even think we had ever had an actual conversation before. Neither of us spoke until Leah and Paul had driven away.

"You're pissed off, right?" he asked me, turning on his bench seat to face me.

I mimicked him, "Beyond pissed. He does this all the time."

"So does she!" Elliot exclaimed.

We were quiet for a moment before I asked, "Do you even want to stay and finish the movie? I just want to get something to eat. And a drink."

"Sounds good to me," Elliot sighed. We both buckled up and he pulled the car out of the lot, "Wait, are you even old enough to drink?"

I laughed, "Barely. I'm twenty-one. I turn twenty-two next month." I went on, "I know a good wing place about halfway home."

Having nothing to talk about except Leah and Paul, and our mutual frustration with them, we discovered over hot wings and beer that they both seemed to vanish a lot. Furthermore, they seemed to vanish together a lot. We both felt uneasy about the obvious picture we had painted: they always seemed to go MIA together, alone.

Were they cheating on us with each other?

"I think we should investigate," Elliot said, helping me into the car. We exchanged numbers and agreed to snoop on the down-low. He dropped me off at Paul and I's shared house in La Push, "Oh man, you two live together? Girl, I promise if we find out they're banging, I'll make room for you at my place. It's a modern townhouse in Forks that I'm renting from my mom. She's living in Florida with her new internet boyfriend."

I laughed, "Has she never seen that LifeTime movie?"

"The Craigslist Killer? I made her watch it before she left," he shot back.

We said our goodbyes and agreed to check in with each other in a few days. We both hoped that we were wrong, that something else was going on, but it wasn't looking like that was the case. I kept my suspicions to myself, not even telling Claire what I was thinking. I did, however, fish for information about Quil's activities. I tried to match up Paul and Leah's vanishing acts with him being away from Claire.

I couldn't.

* * *

MARCH 2013

Elliot and I both sat in his car, silent. We had met outside of Forks and La Push at a park, and I had moved from my car to his. He drove a 1967 Chevy Impala, which had a bench seat in both the back and the front, making it easier than my car to converse and go over what we had found. We'd been meeting here, like this, for almost three months.

"I can't believe it," he breathed, "I mean, I know it's the truth. We have freaking irrefutable evidence. We've done the research. We know. I just can't wrap my head around it."

"I mean, it is pretty unbelievable. It's Buffy the Vampire Slayer come to life," I said, looking at the empty space between us. Usually, it was full of manilla folders with papers stuffed inside, one of our laptops, or some piece of our investigation. We didn't really have anything else to add this time.

Today, we had just agreed to talk.

"I'm pissed off, though. You're pissed off, too, right?" he asked me.

"Beyond pissed off," I threw back, managing to make us both smile as I referenced the throwback to the conversation that started this all. It was true, though. I was mad. I clarified, "We're pissed off about the fact that literally every other imprint was told years before us, right? Like, a few months in?"

"Yeah. I mean, except Claire. They had to wait until she was old enough to keep a secret. But still," Elliot replied, "Yeah, that's why we're pissed. What's wrong with us?"

"Are we not trustworthy?" I asked seriously.

"We are so trustworthy!" he brushed my question off, "We obviously can keep a fucking secret. I mean, look at us. We've spent the last three months going all Private Eye on our own shitty S.O.'s, which totally turned into an investigation on an entire town, and no one is the wiser. We can definitely keep a secret. We're beyond trustworthy."

I agreed, going back to the subject at hand, "They're technically not werewolves, though. Shapeshifters. Their bites are not contagious."

"It's genetic," Elliot added, nodding, "And we are their Imprints; soulmates."

"What a shitty way to treat your fucking soulmate!" I burst, sighing loudly and sitting back against the passenger side door. I crossed my arms over my chest, frowning, "We should confront them. Together. Because sometimes Paul overruns me in conversations and I don't want him to win, you know?"

"Same," he agreed, "We'll do it together. After Claire's birthday party, though. I don't want to ruin that for her. She's your best friend, that would be shitty."

* * *

SEPTEMBER 2014

"Kiss me," Elliot commanded. We'd just shoplifted from a store a few minutes ago, not that the clerk Snapcahtting had noticed. We were pulling on the coats we had jacked, having discarded our old ones. He pulled his beanie over my head, pushing me against the exterior wall of the mall we had been in and brought the hood of his jacket up, "Come on, who stops to make out in the middle of running for their lives?"

"Yeah," I sighed, "Come here."

My hand wrapped around the back of his neck, pulling him down towards me. Our mouths connected just as the doors burst open, the two men who had been following us nearly tripping over themselves. Elliot shifted, bracing his forearm on the wall beside my head and moving closer to me. His other hand was gripping my hip tightly. Out of pure muscle memory, I'd slipped the hand that wasn't resting on his neck up the front of his shirt, my fingers splayed along his stomach. The higher I inched the tighter his grip got.

We stayed like that well past the men moving on. When Elliot finally pulled away, he looked almost pained, and I knew my expression was a mirror image. He placed his forehead against mine, "I feel like I'm cheating."

"It wasn't bad," I offered, and we both followed up with, "But it wasn't the same."

Elliot leaned down and kissed me again.

I didn't stop him.

* * *

APRIL 2013

Elliot and I had seen the Cullen's only a handful of times before, enough to know that they were safe, but not enough to not be a little freaked out when Alice Cullen showed up at our very secluded, very secret meeting. She seemed to literally appear out of nowhere, her boyfriend Jasper not far behind, and knocked on Elliot's window.

He rolled it down, "Uh, hey?"

"We need to talk to you two," Alice told him, her tone light and airy, a friendly smile stretched across her face.

Elliot looked back at me and I shrugged, "Sure. We'll, uh, be right out."

"You know who we are, right?" Alice asked. She waited for us to nod before going on, "Right. Well, we know who you are too. We know what you are. We know that you know what we are."

I waved my hand, "Okay, we all know what the other is. What's up?"

Alice looked over to Jasper, who gave her an encouraging smile, "I am gifted. I receive suggestive visions; visions of the future that are dependent upon the people's choices. The outcomes of which change if someone changes their mind. I've been having visions for the last few months of pain and death."

She hesitated, but Elliot shook his head, "No, no, keep going. You can't just stop there. Whose pain? Whose death?"

"Paul and Leah's. Yours. The whole pack," Jasper clarified, "And all of the descendants who carry either the Shapeshifter or Imprint gene."

Both Elliot and I leaned against the Impala. I felt like I had just been sucker punched. I crossed my arms over my chest and Elliot shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. Alice went on to explain that she didn't have all of the information. All that she knew was who was responsible for it all.

Agatha Johnson. I blanched.

Agatha Johnson was Jay's mom. My psychotic ex-boyfriend had an even crazier mother, which I totally knew, but I never imagined would turn into this. Alice told us that after the breakup, Jay had been seething with anger and embarrassment. He took off, partying in Seattle, and ended up being turned after a few weeks. She explained to us that being a vampire heightens your character traits, and it blows up your feelings and wants to an almost unmanageable level. I hadn't seen Jay since that day at the cliffs, but he had contacted me. He'd sent me dozens of e-mails and texts. He'd called me so much I'd changed my number.

He'd woken up with a hunger for me. He'd gone on a rampage trying to get to me, killing six people before Leah decapitated him. We hadn't known all of that, but Alice helped bridge together the information.

"What does his mother have to do with all of this?" Elliot asked.

"He was a fucking Mama's Boy," I groaned, rubbing my face, "They had some Bate's Motel-esq relationship going on. I bet he fucking ran to her the moment he woke up, bloodlust and all."

"And now she wants revenge for the death her murderous vampire son," Elliot summed up.

Alice wasn't done. She explained to us that the shapeshifters and imprints had specific genes and that those genes were born out of a magic that had been long forgotten. She told us that all magic could be undone and that Agatha was going to figure out just how to do it. She gave us a date: January 1st, 2018. She explained to us that by keeping us in the dark about everything for so long, Paul and Leah had weakened the pack.

With the entire pack, imprints included, lying and covering up for each other, confusion had been created. It was hard to keep the stories straight. And that confusion had left room for someone close to the pack to be influenced. Swayed. The circle hadn't been kept as tight as it should have been.

I took a deep breath, "So someone is already feeding Agatha information? There's a mole, basically. Why can't we just tell them?"

"I don't know if Agatha already has what she needs and if she's just waiting for the right moment, though that is unlikely," Alice said, "And even if she doesn't have everything already, we don't know where she is. She could just further vanish until she figures it out, and we won't know how to stop her when she decides to reappear. I can't zero in on her to know for sure when that would be."

She looked over to Jasper, who nodded and picked up for her, "We think it may be best for you two to leave and look for her and a counter to whatever it is she's found or going to find."

"You want us to what?" Elliot asked, brows furrowed.

"If we tell them, they'll at the very least demand they go with us. Whoever reports back to Agatha would tell her and she'll know something is up. Two members of the pack just up and leaving? It's unheard of," I said, putting the pieces together. I sighed, "Plus, the less they know, the less likely it is that they'll slip and tell whoever is spying on them."

Elliot turned to me, "Are you seriously considering this? For real, you're thinking this is something we should do? Something we can do? First of all, we don't have the time or money to just drop our responsibilities, quit our jobs, and go chase your ex-future-mother-in-law whose involved in magic we are just now hearing about. Second, we wouldn't know how to protect ourselves if we did run into anything supernatural. Third, could we even physically do it? Like, isn't leaving your imprint practically impossible? And last, but certainly not least, us just up and vanishing together would be so weird. They would know something is up."

"We'll help you financially," Jasper answered for me, stepping closer, "And any other way we can. You won't be alone. Our family is at risk in this situation, too. Jacob and Ness- we aren't willing to take any chances with our family. We have been around for a long time and we have connections. We are prepared to set you both up with as silent partners of a firm that we own. We know that this is a sacrifice, so you will remain as partners afterward, and any income generated will be yours to keep."

"I also know how we can explain your leaving. I can create...a situation… for you both to walk in on," Alice said.

Before we had discovered the shifter secret we had thought that Leah and Paul were having an affair. It was the only non-supernatural thing that made sense, and because they still hadn't told us the truth, it would make sense that our suspicions would seemingly be confirmed if we walked in on them in a compromising position. Since they were partners when it came to patrolling, well, it wouldn't that hard to catch them if the situation were set up right.

"Fuck," Elliot mumbled, chewing on his bottom lip. He'd picked the habit up from me. We stared at each other for a few moments before he nodded, "Yeah. It makes sense."

"We're in," I said, my tone reluctant.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for reading! If you're enjoying the story so far please review, favorite, and follow! XOXO


	3. Smell the Roses

**DISCLAIMER:** this is AU Twilight fan fiction written for entertainment purposes only.

 **WARNING:** this story contains graphic language and situations.

* * *

 **NOVEMBER 2016**

The Cullen home in Forks was beautiful.

"Too many windows," Elliot said, opening my door and helping me out. He was ever the gentleman, and I wondered how Leah had ever put up with it. Elliot said she had secretly loved it. Everyone treated her like 'one of the guys'- except Elliot. He always said that Leah was a girl who could do both. The south side of the structure was made almost entirely of glass- something that left little protection- and with our internal switches on constant alert for so long, it made me uncomfortable too.

I agreed, "Welcome to the fishbowl."

Alice and Jasper met us outside. She was smiling, as usual, while he stood stoic beside her. Her constant state of happy used to bother me, especially given the circumstances, but I'd gotten over it awhile ago. Alice was just a positive being. She held her arms out, enveloping us both at once, "I am so glad to see your faces! Are you excited to be home?"

"Not yet," I said, squeezing her back, "But soon, hopefully."

Jasper kissed my cheek, "Did you bring the items? Alice has not yet had a change in her vision. All seems to be on track."

I reached into my purse and pulled out the little black bag we had recovered from the beach. As per the manifest's instructions we had yet to open it. I hesitated when handing it to her, "It's important that you don't open this until we give the go ahead. The less exposure the items inside have before use, the better."

Alice nodded, "We've already scouted the locations they will need to be placed at. Bella and Edward will be here to help, so we can split up and get it done in a matter of minutes. We can wait until the last possible second before exposing them."

They invited us inside, and after sitting down at the island in the kitchen, we went over the specifics of the plan again. It didn't matter what order they placed the items, as long as they were within a hundred feet of one another. We were planning on casting a small net, a hundred feet in each direction, to cause the least amount of damage. The tricky part would be getting Agatha and her oldest son, Markus, where they needed to be. I knew Alice and her family would do their part. They'd held up their end of the bargain so far.

"I'm going to be the bait," I finished up with, "And hopefully Elliot will get to me in time."

Everyone else, the Shifters and the Vampires, wouldn't be able to cross the boundary. They'd die if they did. Part of Agatha's grand plan was to poison the Shifters, but they had to be within a certain distance of her for it to happen. We were essentially setting up invisible walls to keep her and her magic contained. There was only one problem: while it physically kept Agatha in, it would not do the same for anyone else. The barrier was specifically tailored to _her_ magic.

Jasper looked over to Elliot, "She is putting a lot of trust in you."

"She's putting _all_ of her trust in me," Elliot corrected.

Alice was frowning, "How are you going to stop the Shifters from entering the barrier? Specifically Paul and Leah? They won't be able to resist the pull of the bond, especially when you are in danger."

"Hierarchy," I replied.

Jasper looked impressed, "You are going to manipulate the pack mentality."

* * *

 **MARCH 2013**

I was a shitty friend.

A really, truly shitty friend.

I'd stolen Claire's diaries. Well, technically I hadn't _stolen_ all of them. Most of them were online. They were on a blog that was supposed to be private, password protected, and I just happened to know her password. I knew everything about Claire- we were best friends. We'd been best friends since before Quil had even come around. Besides, Claire wasn't exactly big on change. She never updated her passwords. And the thing about Claire was that she wrote _everything_ down. She had always kept diaries, ever since we were little, and I knew she had her childhood ones boxed up in the attic of the house she and Quil shared together. Her mom had early onset Alzheimer's and Claire was so desperately afraid that she was going to forget her life the same way that her mother had, so she wrote it all down just in case. Over the years I knew that the fear had subsided a bit, but the habit remained.

I'd broken into her sacred place because I'd needed to. I couldn't ask Claire about what was going on, and I knew that if she knew _anything_ about it that she would have confessed it in there. At the time I had thought I'd find proof of an affair. Instead, I had found hundreds of pages, years worth of them, on vampires and werewolves and something called _imprinting_.

Instead of reading a line of two about how Paul and Leah were getting naughty behind Elliot and I's back I found myself reading about how Paul had _imprinted_ on me when I was seventeen. I read about Leah imprinting on Elliot a year later. A few weeks later, before we left, I asked Claire for a girl's night. Quil was banished from the house, and when Claire was asleep, I snuck into the attic and stole the paperback diaries.

"Hey," Claire rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, "Thanks for last night. I really needed it."

I smiled, nodding. We were sitting at the dining room table eating breakfast, my duffel bag stuffed full of her childhood ramblings at the front door. I'd traded out most of what had been in it, leaving it in the attic, for the diaries. I knew they rarely went up there, and I couldn't remember the last time she had mentioned going through those things.

"Me too," I agreed, "We spend so much time with the boys. Sometimes I feel like you and me hardly ever get alone time."

Claire pointed her fork at me, "Too bad Paul and Quil aren't on the same shift together."

"They don't work together?" I squinted, "Or did Quil get a job at the shop?"

I watched my best friend push the mild panic from her face as she cleared her throat, "Um, no, I just meant in general. Like too bad they don't have the same hours. You know? Then we could coordinate our man-free time together."

I nodded, "Mmm, yeah, too bad. That would be great."

* * *

 **DECEMBER 2016**

There are certain places that you just don't expect anyone else to be. For example, the bathroom. When I had gotten undressed after our run I hadn't thought to pull the shower curtain back and check inside the walk-in before turning on the water to see if it were occupied or not. I assumed, apparently wrongly so, that because the only people who lived in our house were myself and Elliot, and because the both of us weren't in it, that no one else would be either. I almost screamed when I pulled the curtain open, prepared to step inside when I came face-to-face with Seth Clearwater.

He went to speak, but my hand shot out, covering his mouth roughly.

"Hey, Livvy, you want to go out to dinner tonight?" I heard Elliot call from the bedroom. His voice got louder, telling me he was getting closer. The bathroom door began to open, and I abruptly pushed Seth backward, walking to the shower with him and closing the curtain behind me.

I'd always had a soft spot for Seth, and Elliot would have lost his fucking mind if he'd discovered that he was snooping through our house. If he'd been anyone else I probably would have thrown him under the bus. My hand was still pressed firmly against his mouth as I replied, "You know, I'm really not in the mood to go out. You know what I _am_ in the mood for?"

"This dick?" he joked, and I rolled my eyes. I'd been waiting years for him to outgrow that line.

"Not unless it's deep fried and wrapped in a wonton," I said, my voice dry. I felt Seth grimace, and I looked up at him and winked. Elliot scoffed and I went on, "Seriously, though, what about Tasty Wok for dinner? Maybe a RedBox movie?"

"Yeah, sounds good to me. The usual?" he asked, moving away from the shower. I confirmed it and he asked, "You gonna be ok by yourself?" He waited for me to say yes before following up with, "Okay. Love you, bye."

"Love you too," I replied. Seth and I both waited, listening carefully, for the front door to slam shut and his car to start. Once I was sure he was heading down the drive, I let Seth go. He breathed a sigh of relief.

I kneed him, hard, between the legs, and grabbed him by the hair at the nape of his neck. I yanked him around, out of the shower, and tripped him. He landed hard on the tile floor of the bathroom. Seemed like a kick to groin was the universal way to bring a man to his knees, supernatural or not.

"Shit! God, Olivia- okay! Stop!" he held one of his hands up, the other still cupping his junk. I turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around myself.

"What the fuck are you doing in my house?" I rounded on him, holding my hand out, palm facing him as he tried to stand up.

Seth looked more than a little alarmed when his attempts to get up were unsuccessful, "What's going on?"

I bent down, careful not flash him, and said, "I like you, Seth. You've always been one of my favorites. You're so freakin' sweet, you've got this whole baby face thing going on, and you're just a genuinely nice guy. I think that's why you're the one who got volunteered to break into my house. You did get volunteered, right?" I waited for him to nod, "Right. And it turns out, it was a really good play, because Elliot and I have one rule: we don't keep things from each other. I just broke that rule. For you. So now you owe me, Seth. Answer the question."

"We're just worried about you both," he told me, "We've been worried about you since you left. I was just looking around to see if we could figure out what was going on."

"What did you find?" I asked.

"Just a book," he said, eyes glancing towards his shorts. I reached into his pants pocket, but only felt his phone. Going through his photos and videos, I deleted what he had of the book, but left everything else.

"Next time, don't let them bully you into doing something. Elliot can't find out you were here. And they can't find out about this. Not yet." Pressing my hands to his cheeks, I said, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" he asked.

"For how bad this is going to hurt," I edged my fingers upwards until they were touching his temples. Seth's confusion turned to fear as the air around us buzzed with electricity; snapping. He attempted to stand again, but his body wouldn't respond, and seconds later the pulse in the air was transferring from my hands to his head. His eyes grew wide, his body rigid, "You didn't find anything. You heard us coming home, you hid in the shower, I caught you. Elliot left, I kicked you out. What happened?"

Seth mechanically repeated my words back to me. I felt awful for this doing this; awful because I was going to lie to Elliot and because altering someone's memories without an anchor- Elliot, for me- was extremely painful. It was also shotty, which is why I wasn't trying to alter too much. I just couldn't have them seeing what was in that book, and even though I had deleted the photos, the Pack link would have allowed them to see bits and pieces of it. I definitely couldn't have them knowing that we weren't exactly your run of the mill humans anymore.

Not yet.

* * *

 **FEBRUARY 2011**

I'm pretty sure that Paul was afraid to touch me. I'd heard his friends giving him shit, whispering 'jailbait' every time he stood too close to me. They did the same thing to Claire and Quil, though those two hadn't done much more than hold hands. Claire had been complaining about it. She'd told me that Quil had been keeping her at bay, and even their handholding was 'the friendship kind- you know, no laced fingers allowed'. I'd laughed at her. Then I'd met Paul almost six months ago and I began to fully understand her struggle.

It was _real_.

The thing was, my parents actually really liked Paul, and they weren't worried about anything. The age difference had bothered them at first, but my dad had said that he'd sat back and watched us interact at the annual New Year's block party our entire neighborhood hosted, and that he'd seen something in the way Paul looked at me. He said it was protective, not possessive, and full of admiration.

" _Plus," he'd added on, "The boy thinks the sun shines outta your backside, and I have a feeling that anyone who says otherwise'll find themselves on their ass."_

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Paul's gruff voice sounded from behind me. I glanced backward at him, smiling. He stood at the treeline, arms crossed over his bare chest. The sight of his shorts hanging low on hips was becoming one of my favorite things to see. It was my birthday. I was 18- finally legal. Finally old enough for the jailbait jokes and 12-inch buffer zone to end.

Claire had thrown one hell of a party for our joint celebration. We were only a day apart and we had been celebrating together for a decade and a half. She loved planning parties, and she had thrown some great ones, but this one really outshone the rest. The party had started mid-afternoon on the shoreline and now, close to midnight, it was still raging on by way of firelight. I'd spent all day in my bathing suit.

"It's my birthday," I reminded him as if he could have forgotten between the beach and the top of the cliff, "You said I could have anything." He looked around, brow raised, as if to say 'and you want what _here_?'. I went on, "I used to be so scared of this place. You know, because of what Jay did. I'm not anymore, though."

Paul took a step towards me carefully, slowly, like he was afraid that I'd spook if he moved too fast, "Why aren't you scared anymore?"

"Because," I said, shifting my weight to the balls of my feet. I watched him tense, which made me grin as I went on, "I know you'll always be right there with me." He was far enough away from me that I managed to vault myself off the edge of the cliff before he could make it towards me. I let out a scream- but this time it wasn't out of fear, but pure exhilaration.

Paul had made it a point of teaching me how to swim in the weeks following the incident with Jay. He couldn't believe I hadn't known how before. He'd been a good teacher. I'd wanted to dive from the cliff since the moment it happened- I was all about conquering my fears. I didn't like being afraid. Paul, on the other hand, didn't think it was a good idea. He hadn't said as much, but he'd completely avoided bringing me up here. I had pestered Quil about the jumping off point to make sure it was safe before I tricked Paul into jumping off after me.

I cut through the water with ease and was comforted when I heard Paul land somewhere close. It was too dark to see him underwater, so I waited until I kicked myself back to the surface before I glanced around for him. I swam towards the shore, knowing I wouldn't beat him, but trying anyways. I was almost to where I knew I could reach the bottom when I stopped swimming, suddenly concerned when I noticed he hadn't come up yet. Just as I went to call his name he broke through.

I placed my hand over my heart, "You scared me! I thought-"

" _I_ scared _you_?" Paul snarled, and I was caught off guard for a moment. The sound was almost animalistic. He went on a rant about how I had just thrown myself off a cliff, how I'd been reckless and selfish, and all sorts of other things.

He only stopped when I reached up, wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms loosely around his neck, and kissed him square on the mouth. It didn't take him long to respond. Suddenly his hands had come up, bracing my back and the bottom of my thigh. His lips moved against mine, gently at first, then harder. I didn't pull away until our mouths began to part.

"That, by the way," I said, confident and unashamed of my actions, "Is what I wanted for my birthday. The jump, as selfish as it might have been, was just because I didn't want to be afraid anymore."

"I think we should talk about what this means," he said, and I could tell it was hard for him to push those words out. I shook my head, "What do you mean 'no'?"

I kissed him again, pausing to trap his bottom lip between my teeth lightly before saying, "All we do is talk." I kissed his jaw, "I'm over it." His grip tightened on me, the fingers on my thigh slipping upwards, getting dangerously close to finding their way under my bikini bottoms. I made my way up to his ear, "In fact, for the rest of the night, the only talk I want to hear from you is the dirty kind."

"Shit," Paul murmured, mouth finding mine again.

* * *

 **DECEMBER 2016**

"Can I help you?" Emily's voice was polite but clipped. I looked over my shoulder, catching her gaze. It had been so long since I had seen her in person, I'd almost forgotten about the scar. She stood behind the counter working on a floral arrangement that, though half finished, looked beautiful already.

Emily had worked in this shop as a teenager, but she'd bought it about a year before I'd left. When she was just the manager she had hired Claire and I, and I'd worked here until the day I left. We used to be close, and I could tell she was hurt by the sight of me.

Meandering over to the counter, I snatched a card off the display and started to write, "You can help me by meeting me at this address, tomorrow, at noon. You can _really_ help me by keeping it between us."

"Why would I do that?" Emily asked, her nose crinkling in what I assumed was disgust at me asking her to keep something from Sam.

I shrugged and handed her the card, "I don't know- isn't there some kind of Imprint to Imprint loyalty that requires you at least show up and hear what I have to say? I didn't exactly get the handbook, so, I could be wrong." Emily's face had gone slack with shock. I waved the card in front of her face, but when she went to take it I snatched it back, "Em, it's very important that you don't tell anyone about this. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's life and death. Understand?"

I didn't let her take it until she snapped, "Yes!"

I grabbed one of the pre-arranged bouquets on display and dug in my pocket for a twenty dollar bill, "Thanks for your help." I walked out into the parking lot.

"Wow, have you finally gone somewhere without your boyfriend?" I heard someone call, and I glanced upwards to see Claire. She had a brown bag in her hand and I knew she was probably bringing Emily lunch. Looks like I had gotten there just at the right time. I looked past her, towards the mechanic's garage most of the boys from the pack worked at, and noticed them listening in.

"It's not the first time we've done things apart," I countered, jutting my chin towards the garage, "Just ask Seth." Claire frowned, and I went on, "Oh, did _your_ boyfriend not tell you? They convinced your cousin to break into my house, and instead of bailing, he hid in my shower and watched me get naked. What great friends you have, Claire."

I heard a clatter from across the street but I didn't glance over. Instead, I shrugged, "Weird that they didn't mention that. I thought you considered honesty to be the highest form of intimacy?"

"What?" Claire frowned, confused. The phrase sounded familiar to her, but she'd never said it to me. She'd found the quote a little over a year ago and had written about it in her online diary. I had written a note similar to the conversation I had just had with Emily in the diary this morning. Running into her just helped me kill two birds with one stone.

Elliot pulled up in the BMW, "Oh look, there he is. It's like he can just _sense_ where I am and when I need him. You ever feel that way about Quil?" I bit my lip, "Maybe I'll take a page out of your book and write all my feelings about him down."

"Come on, Liv," Elliot called, "Quit baiting her."

I gave Claire one final stare, silently begging her to pick up the clues I was giving before climbing into the car.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Wow, I am sorry for the delay. Life happened and all those other excuses. However, this is the longest chapter yet! But a big THANK YOU to all of you who have followed, favorited, and reviewed! That is very much appreciated.

XOXO


	4. A Helping Hand

**DISCLAIMER:** this is an AU fanfiction based on the Twilight novels, written for entertainment purposes only.

 **WARNING** **:** this story contains graphic launguage and content. Rated M. 

* * *

**DECEMBER 2016**

"You gonna jump?" I heard Elliot's voice from behind me, "Gonna end it all here and now and just say 'fuck it' to the plan?"

"Maybe," I shrugged, looking back at him. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I half-hoped that when I turned around it would be Paul standing there. We'd made so many memories here. Elliot came up behind me, careful not to touch me. He could tell I wasn't in the mood for that kind of reassurance. I looked down at the water.

He cleared his throat after a few seconds, "Why are we here?"

"This is Paul and I's spot," I said. Then I gave a dry laugh, "Or you know, it _was_ Paul and I's spot. Now it's the spot I'll probably die at. Think I can get them to bury me here?"

Elliot cringed, "Oh man, is this the place?"

"According to Alice," I sighed.

Alice said she wasn't sure how it ended. She told us that her vision, for whatever reason, didn't have an ending. She didn't know if we died, lived, or even if we accomplished what we set out to do in the first place. She just knew Agatha fell for part of the trap. Elliot and I weren't sure we believed her- her visions seemed awfully selective that way. Sometimes we half-joked that she did know what happened, she was just sparing us the gritty details.

"I thought you wanted to be cremated," Elliot turned to me. "Right?"

I looked over at him, "That's assuming there's enough left of me to cremate."

"Maybe we can have them bury us together. Or put up a memorial plaque for us," he voiced, his voice hopeful. He asked, "Do you think ghosts are real? I mean, given everything else, it's not impossible."

I let Elliot go on and on about ghosts and other kinds of supernatural creatures for a few minutes. My gaze was stuck on the water below, remembering all of the times Paul and I had been here. We'd jumped countless more times since my 18th birthday. We had laughed, screamed, cried, gotten intimate- we'd done almost everything here. I had even told him I wanted to get married here.

"I did something," I cut Elliot off, "I have to tell you." He grew quiet, waiting for me to go on, "I caught Seth in our house that day you went to get Chinese and a movie. He found the book. I took those bits away from him." Elliot didn't say anything for a few seconds. Instead, he shifted from one foot to the next. It was a nervous habit he'd had all his life. It was his tell. He was upset. I didn't blame him. After a few seconds I went on, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you right away."

Finally, he swung an arm over my shoulder, "It's fine, Livvy. I would've blown a gasket; probably would have given us away." He pressed a rough, but playful kiss against my forehead, "I know you've got a weak spot for Seth. I still love you."

* * *

 **OCTOBER 2013**

"What do I do?" Elliot asked, his voice frantic. He stood beside me, arms wide, a panicked look on his face. I was on my hands and knees, my face pressed into the crook of my elbow to stifle my screams.

Frederick shook his head and grabbed at Elliot as he tried to reach for me, "You can't touch her! It will only make it worse."

"We can't just- we have to do something! Look at her!" Elliot protested. Another wave of pain rolled through me and another scream escaped.

"You have to connect with her without physical touch. You both are anchored to other souls; now you have to become anchored to each other. That is a painful separation, even if it is temporary and one-sided," Frederick spoke. We'd found him after almost six months of research and tracking, buckled down in a little voodoo shop in New Orleans. He was calm despite my state, resting a strong hand on Elliot's shoulder. He squeezed, "Now, close your eyes. Call to her."

I was in tears. My entire body felt like it was being electrocuted and ripped apart at the same time. The feeling only intensified as the minutes ticked by. I ground out, "You can do this, El."

In all honesty, I wasn't so sure. Elliot was a big man. He was intimidatingly large and inked, with a shaved head and resting bitch face. Despite his standoffish appearance, Elliot had a soft heart. He was the weaker of the two of us when it came to things like this. We both knew it. Unfortunately, that's exactly why he had to be the one to tether us.

We needed an anchor because the kind of magic we were jumping head first into was powerful. Powerful magic, as Frederick had forewarned us, was intoxicating. People became greedy when they tasted it and it changed them. It had changed Agatha- consumed her, really. She was garnering quite the reputation for herself. It was the only reason Frederick had agreed to help us in the first place.

We also needed to put the Imprint bond on pause. If we didn't, Paul and Leah would always be able to find us- at least eventually- and we couldn't afford for them to stumble into this mess half finished. Leaving the bond as it was at this moment also meant that we wouldn't be able to stay away from them for long either. Imprinting was finding your soulmate; being without them for extended periods of time was physically painful. This past half year had been like addicts trying to go cold turkey; the withdrawal hadn't been pretty for either of us.

"I see her," Elliot said. He had fallen to his knees, palms pressed tightly against his eyes. I could see him, too, despite how tightly I had shut my own. The closer he got the more the pain seemed to let up.

"Before the anchoring is complete you both must give the other halves of you to your wolves; they will keep those parts of you safe until you collect them again," Frederick instructed. In the back of my mind I felt Elliot grab me, though I knew he was across the room, and all at once the pain intensified. Frederick began chanting words I didn't understand. The faster he chanted, the more it hurt. Elliot and I gripped each other tightly.

Abruptly, the pain was gone. I forced my eyes open as my body went lax, spotting Elliot on the floor across the room from me. We were still in the cold basement of the voodoo shop in New Orleans. It felt like a lifetime ago that we had walked in here.

"You're bleeding," Elliot motioned to his nose. He was surprised to feel liquid under his too. He asked, "They won't be in any pain, right?"

"No," Frederick confirmed, helping me to my feet, "They will feel a loss, but it will be nothing like what you two have endured here. They won't be able to follow you and you will no longer feel the pull towards them. But remember, you two are bonded now. One cannot live without the other until the wolves give back the parts of you they are keeping safe. That may be easier said than done once you return."

"Does it still hurt?" Elliot asked me.

I sat up and shook my head, "No. In fact, I don't feel anything anymore."

* * *

 **DECEMBER 2016**

Elliot loved boats. He especially loved sailboats, and the one we had acquired during our three years away was his absolute favorite thing. I think he planned on him and Leah living in it if he ever got the chance. Until then it sat in a slip on the coast of Washington, in the same town we used to meet at when we thought this whole mess was just about cheating partners.

Neither Emily or Claire looked particularly impressed as we set sail. Claire spit out, "What- are you going to kill us and dump our bodies out at sea? I've seen that LifeTime movie already."

I rolled my eyes, "Sit down. Or don't- I don't really care if you get knocked over." Claire sat begrudgingly only after we hit a particularly big wave. I went on, "I know that showing up here was hard for both of you."

"What are we doing here?" Emily asked.

Before I could answer, Claire snapped, "I can't _believe_ that you read my diaries. What is wrong-"

"And I can't believe that you never once- in four years- mentioned to me what Paul was, what I was!" I cut her off, the tone of my voice silencing her. I paused and settled myself before going on, "To be fair, I only meant to read the one at first. Paul and Leah were always going off together, always leaving us behind for 'work'. At first, we didn't think much of it- but then the inconsistencies kept adding up and the late nights stopped making sense. We lived in such small towns; there was no way there were that many midnight emergency calls. Then one day they bailed out on us on a date and we started complaining to each other about it all and it just clicked- they were getting caught in the same lies, their stories didn't mesh. We really did think they were having an affair at first. And all of you- you always seemed to be in on something that Elliot and I just _weren't_.

I caught Claire's eye, "So Elliot and I started digging. I figured the easiest way was your journals because you were always going on about how they were cheaper than a therapist. I didn't find anything about infidelity. I did, however, find pages upon pages of well-kept secrets."

Claire frowned, but it was Emily who answered, "It wasn't our place to tell you."

"No?" I laughed, my eyes settling on Claire. She and I grew up in the same backyard. We learned to walk in the same carpeted hall, we were taught to bake by the same woman, learned to throw a punch from the same boy down the block. We had been together since we were just weeks old. Years longer than her and Quil. Then the one thing that was separating us suddenly wasn't anymore, but sure- it still wasn't her place to tell me.

I shrugged, "Well, Paul and Leah obviously didn't feel like it was their place to tell us either. So we were left in the dark. You know what happens when there is too much darkness, right?"

"You can't see," Claire finished, her voice almost a whisper, "You can't see which way you're facing, or where to go, or what has crept in beside you."

"Or who," I added.

Emily perked up, "What?"

Elliot's voice came from behind me, "Lying is a byproduct of keeping secrets. Everyone was so busy keeping us out of the circle, not trusting us, that they didn't notice that they'd been betrayed by someone already inside of it."

The color drained from both Claire and Emily's faces. Elliot had anchored the boat a few miles off of shore making sure we wouldn't be heard. We took turns telling the story- the whole story. It was the end that was the hardest. Claire asked, "So who is it? Who did Agatha get to betray us?"

Emily sighed, rubbed her face, and answered for us, "It was your mother, Claire."

"What?" Claire whispered, her eyes set on me. She shook her head, "No."

Claire's mother, Emily's sister-in-law, had never really gotten on board with Quil and what Imprinting was. She felt it was dirty, that it robbed her daughter of ever having a choice. She had fought hard against it, even moving Claire away from the area for almost a year until she realized it was doing more damage to her daughter than good. She had seemingly come around in the last decade, but it hadn't been in her heart. One scorned mother to another was all it took to get Jenny Young in Agatha Johnson's pocket.

Claire rubbed her face, trying to push away the tears that were threatening to fall, "I _knew_ it was weird. A few years ago- before you even left- she suddenly just… she had always feigned civil behavior, but she sat me down and had this big heart-to-heart. She said she realized how short life was and she didn't want to spend it angry anymore. The backhanded comments stopped. The tense smiles went away. I should have known. God, she even started talking to my dad again. How did you figure out it was her?"

"We've got footage of her and Agatha at various locations and we saw them together in Venice," Elliot said gently.

I moved the conversation along, "We didn't bring you here just to give you perspective. We need your help."

"The reason we didn't tell anyone, even Leah and Paul, was because we couldn't risk the mole telling Agatha that we knew what she was planning. We were lucky Alice even knew as much as she did, but it wasn't a lot at that point. It's still not as much as we would like or need to know. We have a plan, but even if everything goes according to it there's still a pretty big chance we're going to die trying to stop her," Elliot elbowed me.

Both Claire and Emily reached across the table, grabbing my hand. I squeezed back as I spoke, "Trust me when I say that I know how hard withholding information and lying to your Imprint is. It takes everything. I know doing those things will be hard, but it's what I'm asking you to do. We've done as much as we can by ourselves. We need your help now."

Claire chewed on her lip, but it was Emily who answered, "Our wolves do so much to protect us. We will do this for them, no matter the cost."

"No matter the cost," I said, looking back at Elliot.

* * *

 **SEPTEMBER 2012**

"Admiring yourself?" Paul asked. He laughed when I jumped and shot him a dirty look, "I know, I know, you're gonna get me a bell." Coming up behind me, he wrapped his arms around me and asked, "You are so beautiful."

"I can't fit into my jeans," I mumbled. I reached down, pulling the edges together to prove they wouldn't make it, "Living with you is making me fat."

He made a face, "Shut up. Jesus Christ, don't be one of those girls."

"I'm allowed to feel bad about myself, Paul," I rolled my eyes and tried to pull away from him.

"Who the fuck is 'Paul'?" he asked, his grip tightening. He lifted me up, locking my arms against my sides with his own, and began moving from the bathroom towards our bedroom, "That your boyfriend? You cheatin' on me? Because my name is 'babe' or occasionally 'daddy'- so I don't know who the fuck this Paul guy is, but he's clearly not doing a good job showing you there is _nothing_ about you that you should feel bad about."

I fought against him, though we both knew it was futile. My nose wrinkled, "Ew- when have I _ever_ called you 'daddy'?"

"There's always a first time for everything," he said, his mouth on my earlobe. We'd barely made it into the room before I found myself face down on the mattress, his hands yanking my too-small jeans down my thighs. His fingers had hooked into my panties on the descent, and they made their way towards my ankles as well. I could hear him unbuckling his belt as he nipped at my backside.

The doorbell rang.

"You better ignore that," I warned, looking back at him. He hesitated. I rolled off the bed, kicking my bottoms all the way off in the process, and snatched a pair of his basketball shorts off of the floor. He went to follow me out of the room before I turned, hand held up, "Oh, no. You're not going anywhere. This is a make it or break it moment, baby, and you better sit your ass down on that bed and make things right when I get back."

I waited for him to sit slowly before I pounded down the narrow staircase and into the kitchen, opening the back door. I was met with Seth's smiling face, "Uh, hey. Is Paul-"

"Is someone dying?" I cut him off.

He frowned, clearly taken aback, "N-no?"

"Is someone _close_ to dying?" I asked, gripping the door handle. He shook his head and I went on before he could say anything, "You listen to me, Seth Clearwater. _No one_ is going to knock on this door or call or text or send a fucking carrier pigeon until tomorrow morning at 8 unless someone is _literally_ dying. You pass that message along. Okay?"

"But it's important…" he trailed off, seeing my face.

"I'm going to give you some TMI here; every single time, for the last three weeks, one of you has had something 'important' come up _just_ as we're about to get down to business. I've had a really shitty day, so right now I'm the one with something important going on and I'm pulling the girlfriend card. You can have him back tomorrow, bright and early, but tonight _I'm not sharing_. Got it?" I waited for him to nod before I shut the door firmly in his face.

I turned to see Paul leaning against the doorway, "God, I love it when you take control."

"Mmm, yeah, I'll remind you of that the next time you tell me I'm too bossy," I teased, wrapping my arms around him.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Thank you for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites! One of the upcoming chapters is going to be from Paul's POV.

XOXO


	5. Something's Not Right (Paul's POV)

**DISCLAIMER:** this is an AU fanfiction based on the Twilight novels, written for entertainment purposes only.

 **WARNING:** this story contains graphic language and content. Rated M.

 _ **This is Paul's POV!**_

* * *

 **DECEMBER 2010**

"They're _our_ Imprints!" Leah snapped, " _We_ get to decide if we tell them what we are or not."

"It's not just what YOU are, Leah, it's what they are. What we all are. What happens when they notice that you- and them- aren't aging? Or if some bloodsucker shows up? What happens when they start to ask questions about why you keep disappearing or, God forbid, they catch you phasing?" Jared snapped. His face was tense with annoyance.

Same old argument, different day.

"Olivia has started to ask Claire questions," Quil added.

"See?" Jared swung around. He turned towards Sam, "Come on, man, tell them this is a terrible idea."

Sam shook his head, "They know how I feel about keeping Olivia and Elliot in the dark, however, this is a choice they get to make on their own."

"But why?" Seth asked from the back. He avoided his sister's gaze and went on, "Why don't you want to tell them?"

Finally, I spoke up, "The Imprint bond is great on so many levels, but there's always been this worry in the back of my mind that it takes away their freedom. I don't want to be the reason Claire doesn't go to her dream college- the one she's been working so hard to get into since she was in sixth grade. She's barely 18. Knowing about the bond changes the way you make decisions about your life. I want her to have one first."

"It's also dangerous," Leah added, her face still tense with annoyance, "Haven't you ever noticed that the moment someone finds out about our world, trouble starts seeking them out? It's like knowing puts a big red target on their back. We want to avoid that for as long as possible."

"You don't have to understand or agree with it, but you do have to respect our choice to do this. Pack calls for it. So let it go," I finished.

DECEMBER 2016

"You watched my Imprint get undressed?" I asked Seth, my tone tense. I didn't look at him- I couldn't look away from Olivia. Even now, even with everything that had happened, I was still entranced by her.

It pissed me off.

" _I thought honesty was the highest form of intimacy?"_ Olivia asked. My eyes narrowed. Quil was always spouting that bullshit to Claire- but there was no way for Olivia to know that. He hadn't started to say it until years after she bailed. Claire obviously picked up on that fact too.

Seth was yammering on about how it had been an accident, but I wasn't listening. I didn't actually think he'd peep on Olivia. I cut him off, "Something's not right."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, arms crossed over his chest. He was leaning against the hood of the car he had been working on.

I shook my head, "Did you hear what she said? _It's like he can_ sense _where I am and when I need him_. That's an Imprint thing. Everything she was saying- it seemed like she talking in code or something. Quil said the same thing about their exchange on the beach. He said Elliot was really cryptic."

"Maybe that's just the way she talks now. Or maybe she gets a kick out of messing with Claire," Seth butted in. He was still a little bitter about their recent encounter.

"I know her. That isn't how she talks. And she wouldn't torment Claire for shits and giggles, no matter how pissed off she is at me. Something's up. Look at your time with her; you can't remember parts of it. Some of it's missing," I pushed, watching her climb into the car.

"It is strange," Sam agreed, "She was able to overpower you, Seth."

"She smells different," Seth said. Sam and I turned to look at him and he rolled his eyes, "She smells like...I don't know- not human? Less human? Imprints have a particular smell, you know? She smells more like that and less like the human part."

* * *

 **FEBRUARY 2017**

"Thanks for coming, man," Quil glanced over at me.

I rolled my eyes. It's not like I had anything better to do." I turned the radio down, "She isn't answering her phone?"

"It's going straight to voicemail and she was supposed to be back to the hotel room at like ten," he explained. I glanced at the clock on the dash. It was nearly two in the morning. He sighed as we pulled into the parking lot, "This is the last place she was at when her phone was still on."

Claire had gone to a bachelorette party in Port Angeles, a city about an hour and a half away from where we lived. The night before had been the big, out all night affair. Tonight they were supposed to go to bed early to drive home tomorrow.

"There she is," I pointed. Claire was meandering down the parking lot, swaying, keys in hand. She was very clearly drunk.

" _Baby,"_ a man called from behind her, " _Where you goin'? We were just starting to have fun."_

" _Go ah-way,"_ Claire waved a hand back at him, frowning. She was having a hard time speaking.

" _You don't mean that,"_ he laughed, catching up to her with ease. He wrapped his arm around her waist and Claire began to struggle. Quil went to open his door, anger wafting off of him, but something behind Claire and the man caught my eye.

"Stop," I commanded, and just as Quil was about to snap back at me, I pointed behind the duo.

Olivia.

" _No!"_ Claire pushed against him, " _S-stop touching me!"_

The man went to reply, that sick smile still on his face, when Olivia finally reached them. She kicked her leg out, the spiked heel of her shoe making solid contact with the back of his knee. His leg buckled as he cried out and he let go of Claire out of reflex, who stumbled forward and braced herself on a car. Olivia didn't waste any time, using his downward momentum against him, she took a fistful of his hair slammed his face into the bumper of a Ford truck.

"Oh, shit!" both Quil and I cringed, sitting back in our seats as Olivia crouched down to his level.

" _Fuck!"_ he reached up, hand cupping his bloody nose. Claire slouched against the hood of the car, looking over her shoulder to stare at the pair behind her. The man stumbled his way back to his feet and took a swing at Olivia, " _Crazy bitch!"_

He missed. She swung and landed a solid right hook to his already battered face. I had taught her that. Despite the circumstances, my chest swelled with pride.

Olivia laughed, her face breaking out into a big grin, as she replied, " _I get it. She was an easy target. Her shitty friends left her here alone, plastered. It wasn't hard to slip something into her drink without her noticing. All you had to do was follow her out. She secluded herself. I mean, look at her- keys out, jamming on that alarm button- she doesn't even remember that she didn't drive here. She did all the work for you. Easy."_

He was cupping his face, not showing any sign of backing down. I knew it was his pride keeping him from walking away. He was used to using women as a punching bag, not the other way around. Olivia was small; she weighed a buck twenty and came in at 5'5'' in her heels. The douchebag before her had a good four inches and seventy pounds on her.

Quil seemed to be thinking the same thing, "One good hit from him and she's out."

"Yeah," I agreed, "But he's going to have to actually hit her first. If he does, we'll step in, but I want to see how this plays out. If that's alright with you- I know it's rough sitting here with Claire right there."

"Still got that funny feeling?" he asked me.

I was quiet for a moment, "I've had it since the day she left." My eyes were on Quil, and I watched him cringe at the sight before him. When I looked back to the confrontation, Olivia had obviously hit the man in the balls. He was back to his knees, hands covering his junk.

" _Ooooh, that was dirty. But efffective,"_ Claire managed to get out.

" _Claire, there is no such thing as fighting dirty,"_ Olivia snapped back. She reached forward, her fingers wrapping tightly around the man's throat. He gripped at her hand, but just like with Seth, he didn't seem to have the strength to push her away. She made eye contact, " _Just take this guy; he can't get laid by himself, so he's got to_ _resort to spiking drinks and sexual assault. I guess it's cheaper than buying a hooker. But you're not going to do that again, are you?"_

He nodded. Olivia leaned down then, her mouth almost touching his ear. She whispered something to him, but between the highway and how far away from us they were, we missed it. It was a quick exchange, that led with her releasing him and him standing up, walking briskly to his car a few rows back.

" _You have such shitty friends,"_ Olivia told Claire, walking up to her and putting an arm around her. She began walking her towards us.

" _What was I sss-suppos-ed to d-do? Not make any new fri-ends after you lefffft?"_ Claire asked, her feet shuffling lethargically. Olivia replied that yes, that was exactly what she was supposed to do, which caused Claire to pout. She was quickly redirected when they approached the vehicle, " _Oh my God, did you STEAL Paul's truck?"_

My mouth dropped open- yeah, that was definitely my truck.

" _I didn't steal anything. I borrowed it. And it isn't Paul's truck, it's mine. Technically,"_ Olivia popped open the passenger door and helped Claire get inside.

" _You totally stole Paul's truck!"_ Claire giggled, her voice loud.

Olivia wasn't finding it funny. She pushed against Claire's backside, " _God, shut the fuck up. Elliot is out of town, we only have the one car, and I've been paying the registration and insurance on this truck the entire time I've been gone so Paul can still drive it. I even fucking added him as a driver on the car after I left in case he got in an accident or pulled over or something. It's my car. I can drive it if I want to. Especially when he leaves the spare key in the same spot it's been in for like a fucking decade."_

Claire dead weighted and I let out a soft laugh. I could just imagine Olivia's expression. Quil hit me in the arm, "Hey, good thing we waited. I wouldn't want to deal with that."

" _Aaare you and El-liot together? Like, have y-you had sah-ex with him?"_ Claire asked. I held my breath, all laughter gone. It was a question that had plagued both me and Leah since they had left. Olivia sighed and told Claire that no, she hadn't slept with Elliot. Or anyone else. Claire pushed, " _Do you miss Paul? Do you still looooove him?"_

" _Are you going to get in the fucking car?"_ Olivia demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

Claire mimicked her, " _Are yoooou going to answer me?"_ She hiccuped.

" _God- for fuck's sake! Obviously, yes, Claire. Yes. I do. On both fucking accounts. I dropped what I was doing- which was important- and drove three hours to come collect you, no questions asked. I'm pretty sure I broke a finger on that asshole's face. The least you could do is_ get in the Goddamn car!" Olivia snapped. She was officially over it, and even drunk and drugged up, Claire could tell. She turned around, and with Olivia's help, managed to climb into the cab of the truck. Liv buckled her in, rolled the window down, and slammed the door shut. She hollered as she walked to the driver's side, " _Why didn't you call Quil?"_

" _I know we aren't sssspeaking and all, but I only kn-ow your number by heart. And I knew you'd come get me e-even if you're still pisssssed at me. You wouldn't let me get hurt,"_ Claire said, her tone confident even through the slurring. She hung her head out of the window.

Olivia didn't reply. Instead, she started the engine and pulled out of the lot.

* * *

 **MAY 2013**

Leah had lost her damn mind. We were in the middle of a cookout, there were so many people around, and she was about to phase in front of them all. We weren't even in a position to haul her ass into the woods for some cover; no, we were in Forks, in the smack dab middle of the town, at Nessie's birthday bash. I'd barely gotten her into the back room of the swanky bed and breakfast we'd found ourselves in when she began to shift.

God, I hated the Cullen's. I had told Jacob we should just have separate parties. The joint ones never ended well.

The power struggle that ensued after we had both phased was a blur. What happened afterward, however, was forever engrained in the back of my mind. I had finally gotten Leah to get control. We'd just shifted back, were still on top of each other, when the door swung open and there stood Elliot.

"What's going on in here?" I heard her voice, and I struggled to detangle myself from Leah, who had gone completely still. Elliot pushed back against her, mumbling something about how she better not look. She pushed past him anyways. I knew it looked bad- me on top of Elliot's girlfriend- but his look of betrayal was nothing compared to the look of complete and utter heartbreak that took over Olivia's face.

"Liv, it's not-" I started.

Leah finally managed to snap out of it, "This is not what it-"

"Shut up!" Olivia snapped, her face twisting up. She fell back against Elliot, who brought his hands up to brace her arms, "You know, for months we've suspected this. I just didn't realize how awful it would hurt to see it."

"I can explain," I promised her, moving to find my clothes. She shook her head, and I watched her and Elliot move together, in a way I had only seen her do with me before, as a unit.

"It's too late," she said, her voice soft. "You had so many chances to explain and… now it's too late."

She pushed past Elliot again, this time out of the room. He blocked my advance towards her. His tone was drop dead serious as he said, "You took care of my girl, now I'll take care of your's."

* * *

 **February 2017**

"Let me get this straight," Jared popped his head out from under the car he was working on. He waited for me to make eye contact before he went on, "So, Olivia _stole_ your truck and went to rescue Claire last night, which the way those two have been going at it- whatever. While there she beat down the dude trying to take advantage of Claire like a UFC champ- dude didn't even get one hit in- and then she just returned the truck to your garage last night and didn't say anything?"

"With a full tank of gas," I confirmed. My tone sounded just as miffed as I actually was, "More than I had in it before she took it. But, man, I'm telling you, she did this weird thing to the guy at the end. I don't know what it was, or what she said, but when she was done talking he just got up and walked away. It was… I don't know. It was strange."

Jared shook his head, "Oh wait, and I forgot the part about how she admitted that she and Elliot aren't a thing and that she's still in love with you and misses you. So we can take the rejection theory off the table completely." He paused, eyes narrowing, "You should talk to her. I bet if you confront her she won't be able to lie to your face."

"No one is confronting anyone," Sam said. No, he commanded. We all jerked our heads around to face him, confusion etched into our foreheads. He went on, "Until further notice, no one in the pack will have any contact with Olivia or Elliot, either directly or indirectly."

"You can't forbid me from talking to my Imprint," I challenged.

"I can," Sam replied, staring me down, "And I am."

The order felt like a fist clamped down on my heart. An anger I hadn't felt in years bubbled up to the surface and I turned, slamming my hands into the tool cart to my left. It shot across the room, tumbling over, as I made my exit, "Fuck you, Sam! Fuck this!"

"Sam?" I head Jared ask.

"He's survived this long without her. He'll be okay for awhile longer," I heard my Alpha reassure the room. What I didn't hear was the most important part, "Her survival depends on him not interfering with what is about to happen."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Thank you for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites!

XOXO


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